Silvio Calabi: Auto touch-up goes far beyond cheap rattle cans

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Jul 25, 2016 at 10:31 AMJul 25, 2016 at 10:31 AM

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Although I am fairly handy around the house, there are two DIY areas that I stay away from as strictly I would, say, Ebola: Electricity and paint. One will kill me and the other will offend my eye, since afterward I’ll only ever see the blemishes, however faint, because I’ll know where they are.

I’ve left these specialties strictly to the experts, until now. Recently I received an e-mail pitch that wasn’t for walk-in bathtubs, reconditioned computers or lonely Asian ladies; it was for a line of automotive touch-up paints, repair materials and tools called, oddly enough, AutomotiveTouchup.

Shari Arfons, who promotes ATU, has an unusual name, and I had to ask. It turns out she really is related to Art Arfons, the late land-speed record-holder. (Google; Wikipedia; you know the drill.) Next thing, we’re e-mailing about paint, and in a weak moment I admitted that my car has a tiny streak of bare aluminum where something rubbed the edge of the grille opening. I could barely feel Shari’s teeth on my ankle as I gave up make, model, year and even vehicle ID number, for an exact color match. Then a box arrived full of all things ATU: Aerosol cans, half-ounce bottles and touch-up pens of primer, basecoat color and glossy clearcoat; rubbing compound, sandpaper and a sanding block; masking film, prep wipes and even latex gloves, along with an invitation to call for help, if necessary.

Necessary? If the need to paint trim in the house makes me want to go shovel out the compost bin instead, the very idea of putting paint or sandpaper to a car, to my weekend car, leaves me feeling faint. Wouldn’t that be like drilling out my kid’s tooth and filling the cavity myself? Or saving a few bucks by neutering the cat at home?

Saving money is what AutomotiveTouchup is all about, of course, and I resolved to proceed.

What tipped me over the edge was the assurance from ATU that whenever I might think, “Dear God, what have I done?” the answer would be, “Nothing that can’t be fixed” — because I’ve got all the latest materials right here. Or so Paul Fernandez claimed.

Paul has been with Automotive Touchup for more than a decade and is no longer just a paint maven but now the general manager. ATU, he told me, began in a garage in New Orleans. The founder mixed paint for an auto-body shop, which led to his own touch-up work on the side, which led to friends asking for paint for their cars. In the early 2000s he decided to try going straight to the consumer on this Interweb thing. “It was hard to get noticed at first,” Paul said, “and then it got hard to keep up with the demand.” ATU now has about 40 employees, and it can match some 60,000 OEM (original equipment manufacturer) colors on pharmaceutical-grade equipment.

ATU supplies carmakers too, but most of the business is private-label touch-up packages sold on-line to the do-it-yourselfer. “Private label” because each container of paint, whether pen, bottle or spray can, is branded to the customer’s specific car make, model and year. The company site lists 65 marques from Acura to Yugo — including Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Fisker, Lamborghini, Maybach, Rolls-Royce and Tesla — plus bygone names from Saab to Studebaker. A few current cars (McLaren, Pagani, Zonda, Bugatti) are missing, but ATU loves a challenge. “Give us a VIN number,” says Fernandez, “and we’ll get you the color.” I want to see a Bugatti owner hunched over his Veyron with a sanding block.

My touch-up job was, well, touchier than expected because the bare metal was right at the edge of the clear “bra” that protects the nose of the car; and I should have started with the paint bottles instead of the pens. (The pen tips excel at filling in stone chips.) But between Paul’s coaching and ATU’s how-to videos, I got ‘er done, and pretty quickly. Thin layers of primer and basecoat dry in minutes, and then I waited an hour before applying the glossy clearcoat.

ATU’s spray cans and bottles will last for years, so long as the storage temps aren’t extreme; the paint pens, once activated, have a shorter shelf life. As for me, though I drive through the valley of the shadow of gravel, I will fear not the mark of stone, for ATU will restore my car’s skin. I’ve been empowered.

— Silvio Calabi reviews the latest from Detroit, Munich, Yokohama, Gothenburg, Crewe, Seoul and wherever else interesting cars are born. Silvio is a member of the International Motor Press Association whose automotive reviews date back to the Reagan administration. He is the former publisher of Speedway Illustrated magazine and an author. Contact him at calabi.silvio@gmail.com.